


William Darcy Diaries

by elizabeth_darcy



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Pride and Prejudice & Related Fandoms, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M, darcy is a vlogger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabeth_darcy/pseuds/elizabeth_darcy
Summary: AU where it's Darcy who has the video blog, not Lizzie.Instead of writing her a letter, he sends her a link to his vlog to explain everything.How does their relationship change when Lizzie can see Darcy's perspective play out on screen?





	1. A Visit to youtube.com

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy sends Lizzie a link to a playlist of a complete collection of all his vlogs (instead of a letter) in hopes for her to better understand his side of things.

"He... he _vlogs_?!" Lizzie's eyebrows knit together as she looked around his channel, saturated with years worth of videos. She frowned, wondering whether or not she should watch. _Of course not,_ she told herself, _you hate him. Why on earth would you give him the benefit of the doubt?_

And yet, she found herself clicking the first vlog anyway.

  
Episode 1:  
She bit back a sarcastic laugh as Darcy popped up on screen. He was easily a few years younger, and, though he didn't look too different, she could still see how his face was slightly rounder and less defined.

That wasn't the biggest change, though. Surprisingly, he was... _smiling_. Grinning, even. She'd never seen him display even an inch of that much emotion in her whole acquaintance with him, yet here he was, doing it within the first moments of this video.

He was joking around with his sister, introduced as Gigi, as they hiked up some trail she'd never heard of.

“We thought this might be a fun experiment,” Darcy was explaining, “Considering our careers with Pemberley Digital, we figured we should attempt to not only analyze and support the online world, but join it ourselves.”

“You can just say ‘We thought it’d be fun to become famous Youtubers,’” Gigi teased.

Darcy gave her a playful gaze, “We aren’t doing this to gain a following, Gigi.”

“Well, _I_ am!” She exclaimed, snatching the camera from his hands and skipping further down the path, spinning around in circles to show off their surroundings to the camera.

“Very funny,” Darcy called as he made his way toward her.

“Thank you, I am,” she grinned, tilting one shoulder up with pride.

Lizzie frowned as she watched Gigi giggle and tease her brother. This was certainly not the Gigi that George had described. Well, but to be fair, this was not the Darcy that she knew, either. She'd never witnessed this side of him in all the months of her knowing him- this cooler, calmer, older brother Darcy was like nothing she'd ever seen.

Nor had she seen him wearing anything besides a clean pressed button-up; but yet again, this Darcy insisted on breaking his own norms. This Darcy was wearing a fitted, deep blue v-neck with black cargo-styled pants- _athletic gear_.

Somehow, though, it suited him. It made him look less hardened. Less on edge. Less... _roboty_.

Gigi suddenly spun the camera toward the man in question, “ _So, Will, give us the inside scoop!_ ” She pretended with a low, sleazy voice, mimicking the paparazzi, “ _What’s your love life like? Any women in the picture? When’d you meet? What’s her name? Are you gonna propose?! Do you want to have kids?!_ ”

“You’re hilarious,” Darcy deadpanned, taking his camera back, “But you know those answers.”

“Hey, a girl can dream! Will, you’ve barely even dated any girls, how am I ever supposed to become the best aunt ever if I never even get nieces?”

“Well, currently the only woman in my life is Caroline, so if you really want nieces...”

“Nevermind!” She squeaked, bounding off again.

Darcy chuckled.

There was a sparkle in his eyes that made Lizzie want to smile. He looked a lot realer. A lot happier.

_No. Absolutely not. This is still the man who hurt your sister,_ she reminded herself. _Don’t empathize with the enemy._

  
Episode 4:

Lizzie's heart tugged as she watched Bing come on screen and wave to the camera.

Bing, Caroline, Gigi, and Darcy were all wearing swim gear (including a shirtless Darcy was even. _Shirtless_. Lizzie knew for a fact this could not be the same man), relaxing by a pool at someone's lavish mansion.

Lizzie frowned, wondering if she should tell Jane about Darcy’s vlogs since Bing was now in them.

_No. She doesn't deserve to be dragged back into this._

“Guys, watch this!” Bing shouted, canon-balling into the other end of the pool.

Darcy snorted from behind the camera and answered monotonously, “ _Wooow_.”

“Bing, if you hurt yourself I am not driving you to the hospital!” Caroline warned, sliding her designer sunglasses back up her nose and leaning back to tan again.

The camera panned over to Gigi, outfitted in a cute polka dot bikini on the beach chair by her brother.

“I told you swimming wouldn’t be as fun as you thought,” Darcy told her.

“That’s because you’re a party pooper. For God’s sake, neither of you will even get in the pool!”

“I never promised I would,” Darcy shrugged.

“You’re the worst.”

“Gigi, I've told you, I just don’t enjoy getting wet. How many summers will it take for you to understand that?”

Gigi rolled her eyes dramatically, “You’re like a cat. Grumpy and quiet and hates water.”

“I’ll make sure to put that in my Twitter bio,” he replied, dryly.

“Actually, you should! Your current one _sucks_.”

“I apologize that you take such offense to my social media descriptions.”

“You’re impossible,” she declared, finally standing up and heading toward the water, “This is why no girl wants to date you!” She declared over her shoulder.

Lizzie pulled back in her seat a little bit at the comment.

It was just something a sibling said to a sibling- Gigi didn’t mean it really. But it hit a little too hard for Lizzie.

She just didn’t know how to feel about any of this.

If this side of Darcy was the only side she knew, then she could see herself potentially being friends with him.

But then could she just ignore all the other, real life things she knew about him? Of course not.

With videos, he could always edit out when he wasn’t being his best. But in real life, she’d seen and heard all those moments first hand.

And she definitely couldn’t just discard that.

... Right?

  
Episode 7:

Lizzie watched Darcy run a hand through his hair, which shone from the unclouded sun above him. He was hiking again. This time without Gigi.

He was clearly concerned.

"It's just..." he sighed, "Something's different." He said to the camera decisively. He looked away again, "I know my sister and something's... off. She's calling less, texting less." He scratched his chin. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just... crazy. She just got on the swim team at college... I'm sure that's it. She's busy at practices and meets. I mean, she's always made time to call between swim practices in the past but..." he sighed and sat down on a nearby rock before looking back into the camera and putting on a forced smile, "Maybe it's just college. Maybe she's just growing farther apart from me. I guess that's what happens to families when someone goes to college?" He suggested weakly. He bit his lip, "That certainly wasn't the case when I went to college," he scrubbed a hand across his face and gave a sad laugh, "Mom and Dad had just died and Gigi was the only thing I had left. We clung to each other as tightly as possible. I just... I thought that bond couldn't be broken. And now? I'm getting worried that it wasn't as strong of a bond as I thought. Maybe... I'm not sure. Maybe I should visit her. See what's happening..."

He stared off at the sunset for a long moment before taking a deep breath and snapping out of his thoughts, turning back to the camera with a chuckle, "I'm sorry for the monologue. I'm sure none of you cared to hear my thoughts. I would suggest to like and subscribe, but I'm not certain that even I would after a weird video like this. At least you got to see the wonderful view, hmm?" He motioned behind him to the beautiful mountains surrounding him. He laughed slightly before nodding goodbye to the camera, "Thanks for listening."

Lizzie tapped her fingers on the desk. Was this what George was talking about? Is this when Gigi got prideful and reserved? Hmm...

  
Episode 8 (unlisted):

"I'm sorry, I..." Darcy huffed out.

Lizzie immediately sat up straighter on full alert. He was crying. _Oh my God, William Darcy was crying._

He ran a hand through his messy hair before letting out a bitter laugh as his eyes looked into the lens, "Good God, what the fuck am I doing? I'm making a god damn video about it," he laughed more, amazed with his actions. Lizzie hated the sound. She may hate him, but that doesn't mean she wanted him to be crying...

He shook his head, "Frankly, I'm making a video because I'm not sure who else I can talk to. Long story short, Gigi's mad at me. Why? Well..." he shook his head. "Let me tell you a story, about a guy who made it his mission to ruin my life. He and I were best friends for our entire childhood. I suppose all stories like this start out with that, huh? But anyway, we were best friends. Well, unless you want to count the multiple times he stole from me or when he had sex with my girlfriend behind my back. So perhaps not the bestest friend. But nonetheless, I loved him like a brother. And when my father died, I had counted on him for support. Gigi and I both did.

"And when we were older, and he asked for the money my father promised him for a college fund, I gladly gave it to him. Genuinely, I was happy to give it. It... it felt like I was making my father proud. Honoring him in this way, after the past few years feeling like I was only ever failing him.

"I thought that would be the end of it. I'd gotten to know the darker sides of my friend by then, and I had decided I wanted to stay out of his life, but I figured that giving him the money and sending him on his way would do that. Unfortunately, it wasn't. See, he'd convinced me to give it to him all at once. And I did. As I said, I was eager to keep a bit of distance between he and I, so I thought this would work better for both of us...

"I didn't realize... I had no idea he would just spend  _all_ of it in a year. I would've never..." He looked away for a long moment. "Well, anyway, none of that matters because he did. And then immediately returned, demanding I give him more. At this point, I was still new to being the head of my father's company. I was keenly aware of all the ways the company was going down the drains without my father's leadership, and even if I had wanted to give him the money, we weren't exactly in the best position to do so. Nonetheless, though, he didn't deserve the money. I didn't owe it to him, and I felt that my father wouldn't give it to him if he were still alive. So I denied it from him. And again," he gave a bitter laugh, "I'd thought that'd be the end. I figured he'd stomp around, dragging my name through the mud to as many people as he could- which he did- but then would never interact with me again. What an idiotic idea...

"So I visited Gigi yesterday. I've been worried about our relationship, so I figured a weekend up with her would help us bond again, like the good old days. I hadn't figured that she'd already had company."

He spent a long, long time just looked off into the distance, his eyes scanning for what to think, what to say, what to do.

"Gigi," he said, turning to look straight down the camera, "If you're watching this, I'm sorry I never told you. I thought... I was certain we'd never see him again; I thought it'd be easier if you never knew about what kind of person he was..." He sighed, "I'm sorry. It was a stupid mistake. Even if he hadn't come back into your life, you still deserve to know the truth. I know it always bothered you not knowing..."

Darcy kept talking but Lizzie couldn't focus anymore.

How could any of this be true? But then, how could it not? This video was time-stamped from years ago. There's was no way he could've set up such an elaborate lie. And even if he could, why would he? What could he gain now, after she'd already rejected him?

And it couldn't even have been to publicly clear his name, he doesn't even mentioned George's name, plus it had very little views so he probably privated the video almost directly after posting it. 

_So this all had to be true._

Lizzie felt like the world was crumbling at her feet. She didn’t know what to feel anymore.

  
Episode 37:

Darcy grimaced into the camera, his eyes squinted shut with embarrassment.

"So... I'm a really poor dancer."

Lizzie's stomach dropped. This was it. This was when she came into his story. Oh God, Lizzie wasn’t ready for this.

"Poor's an understatement," Bing added next to him.

"Shut up," Darcy groaned, his eyes wincing closed at the memory.

He sighed before opening his eyes and looking back to the camera, "So we were at a wedding, and because Stuart thinks it's funny to annoy me, he threw the garter right at my face."

"He wanted to see you loosen up. You were barely talking to anyone..."

"Well, doing that made me talk to Lizzie and that _clearly_ was not any better. There's a reason I don't socialize and it's because things such as this occur."

"You have to admit," Bing chuckled and put his hand on Darcy's shoulder, "That was, by far, the most awkward dance ever."

Darcy glared, "Well, I'm terribly sorry that my dancing abilities are insufficient for you."

"Oh, come on! You know it, too! It's why you wouldn't dance with her again when I suggested it."

"That's not why."

Bing rolled his eyes, "You're just awkward with socializing because you thought she was pretty."

Darcy gave his friend a withering look, "Excuse you, I have poor social skills with everyone new that I meet."

"And this girl especially! Your chin was practically glued to the back of your neck!” Darcy glared at Bing but he continued, “Besides, even if you won't acknowledge that you like her, she is totally your type."

Darcy scoffed.

"Lizzie is smart, witty, beautiful-"

"I don't think anyone in this insufferably small town fits the definitions of those words. And anyhow, you hardly know her. You've exchanged one conversation with her, I don't think you can exactly call her smart."

"Jane said she was the smartest person she knew, and I trust Jane's opinion."

"Ugh, Jane's even worse," he rolled his eyes, "She's too nice."

"'Too nice!'" Bing exclaimed, laughing, "Your standards in women are absurd, Darce. 'Too nice’ my ass. And anyway, if you _really_ believe that, then you should've liked Lizzie. She seemed just a perfect amount of nice for you."

"Lizzie is..." something flickered across his face. Lizzie would've usually written it off as him remembering his hatred for her or something, but now she knew that he liked her. That he... 'loved' her.

So she had to wonder... was it admiration? Had he liked her then, too, yet had refused to acknowledge it?

She hit the back button to replay the last few seconds:

"Lizzie is..." and there it was. A spark of admiration twirled in his eyes before he quickly blinked it away, suppressing it, "Lizzie is decent enough, I told you. But she wasn't anything special."

Lizzie laughed aloud. _Oh really? Because you fall for my unspecial ass a few months from now..._

  
Episode 39:

"Listen, I love Darcy as if he were my own brother," Bing stated to the camera, alone in the shot, "But he is so in denial about his feelings for Lizzie."

Lizzie rose an eyebrow as the title sequence played before returning to Bing:

"We ran into Lizzie and... Jane," he smiled to himself, "At a bar last night and, despite what Darcy says, it's sooo obvious he likes Lizzie. I mean, he's rarely not looking at her for starters, but he revealed something to Caroline last night which I overheard: He's been looking specifically at her _eyes_. Darcy's never really had too many girlfriends in the past, but when he's ever liked a girl, it always has to do with her eyes. I think he's one of those 'eyes are the window to the soul' people. But last night, Caroline asked him what had him so deep in thought, and he told her specifically that it was Lizzie's eyes. Sorry, buddy, but that's a hook, line, and sinker. He totally likes her. Not to mention he spent the whole time fake texting. Darcy doesn't fake text unless he cares about the opinions of the people in the room. And he _rarely_ cares about people's opinions of him. I almost never see him do it, only at select parties. But around Lizzie... you better believe he was fake texting for hooouuurrrss.

"So Darce, I'm sorry for hijacking your vlog, but the truth had to be spread. And you had to be interventioned! ...Interventioned? ...Intervented? Inter... You had to be _given_ an intervention. You definitely like her, and you need to come to terms with it. Love you, though!" He gave a smile before turning off the camera.

The screen flickered to Darcy, wholly unamused as he lay against the headboard of his bed, "Editing Darcy here: Lizzie has nice eyes. I stand by that statement. It does not mean I like her at all. I simply noticed that if you look close enough and in the right light, you can almost see the flecks of green in her blue eyes. And also that there's some bits of gold in her eyes when she's out in the sun or wearing that yellow shirt she wore last week. Or when she gets really angry about something. But it's really no big deal. It's completely objective. It means nothing."

He stared off beyond the camera for a few moments more before blinking and turning back.

"I don't like Lizzie Bennet," he asserted firmly, before shutting off the camera and ending the video.

 

Episode 42:

Darcy wandered around the house, taking pointless yet beautifully arranged shots of many different rooms in the large Lee house.

"Darcy," Bing interrupted, walking into frame, "What are you doing?"

Darcy cleared his throat and quickly picked up his camera, "Just recording some video."

Bing furrowed his eyebrows, "Of what?"

Darcy shook his head and shrugged, "Just some stock footage. I think it's always important to have some stock footage on hand if you ever need it."

"Stock footage of the kitchen? What on earth would you even use that footage for, it's not-" Bing's confused frown shifted into a knowing, shit-eating smile as he shook his head, "You are in so deep, Darce."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're filming around the house because you're hoping to run into Lizzie."

Darcy tucked his chin to his neck and looked away.

Bing laughed, "Just ask her out, man."

"I don't want to go out with her."

"Oh my god, yes you do! She is all you've been thinking about!"

"That doesn't mean I want to go out with her."

"So what, then? You just stare at her and walk around the house to run into her but never actually pursue anything?"

"Precisely," Darcy nodded, before walking out of the room.

Bing tossed his hands into the air and scoffed as he disappeared out of frame.

"Bing likes to think he knows what's going on," Darcy muttered, walking down the hallway, "He doesn't. I needed stock footage of a kitchen and a lounge and a sitting room. I mean, who doesn't need that? If it just so happens that I run into-"

The camera jolted against Darcy's chest as he stopped walking, the video turning black as his chest covered the lense.

"Lizzie," he swallowed, his tone from earlier instantly hardening with what could be now interpreted as nervousness.

"Darcy," Lizzie's unenthusiastic voice replied, "Why do you have a camera?"

"I'm... into cinematography. I take videos... about... my life..."

"You don't strike me as someone willing to give up privacy for a few vlogs."

"They're for my sister," he answered, quickly, "They're like video letters that I email to her about what's going on in my life."

"I didn't think there'd be enough going on for you to be able to make a video about it..." Lizzie teased, in a tone that she now saw as quite harsh, while brushing past Darcy down the hallway.

"You'd be surprised," Darcy half-whispered.

 

Episode 43:

Darcy looked up from his laptop as Bing, holding the camera, stormed into the room, "Darcy!"

The accused man raised a single eyebrow, not moving a single muscle from his current working position.

Bing stomped over to Darcy dramatically and slapped a book down on the desk in front of him.

"Care to explain?" Bing asked.

Darcy looked from Bing to the book and back. "Well... it's a book. It's like this bounded set of pages that each have words on them-"

"Don't even!" Bing laughed, "You know what I'm talking about."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No idea?" Bing slid the receipt out from where it had been tucked between the pages, "So you didn't just buy this book two days ago?"

Darcy shrugged with one shoulder, "Sometimes I go to bookshops- sue me."

"A bookshop where you just  _happened_ to stumble upon a copy of Anna Karenina? How a propos, considering the fact that  _three_ days ago, Lizzie had just been reading the exact same book and told you it was one of her favorites. Of but of course, I'm  _sure_ that you didn't remember that whatsoever. Because you just happened to mosey into this bookstore- something very unlike you considering you've only ever read e-books since you got your Kindle. And then you just  _happened_ to pick up a copy of the favorite book of Lizzie- whom you claim to hate. It just seems so interesting, does it not?"

"Just shut up," Darcy pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I will when you admit it! You like her! Just say it, Darce, you like her! It's not a crime, she's a lovely girl! And if I'm being honest, I think you two would make a great couple! But you can't until you admit to yourself that you like her!"

Darcy gave Bing a long look, " _Bing_."

"What? Come on, you know-"

"No, I don't know. Look, fine.  _Fine_ , I might kind of think Lizzie is an interesting person. Maybe. But it's never going to happen alright? Her and I are just too different, so will you just drop this already?"

Bing shook his head with a sigh, "Whatever, man."

He moved to pick up the book but Darcy knocked his hand away, "No, go ahead and leave that. I'll need it for my... next... vlog."

Bing closed his eyes and laughed, giving the camera back to Darcy, "You are in so deep, Darce. I hope you realize that."

Darcy watched Bing leave the room and shut the door behind him.

"Believe me," Darcy muttered to himself, " _I know_."

Lizzie ran a hand through her hair. For someone so known for reading people,  _how_ had she been so  _wrong_? How had she missed any and every sign of what was actually going on? Was she really this blind to everything?

How many more things in her life had she not realized was happening???

 

  
Episode 44:

Darcy stared into the camera annoyed, exhaling with fatigue.

"Guess what day it is," he grunted.

"Party day!" Bing cheered from off camera.

Darcy shook his head as his lips gave way to a slight smile from his friend's excitement.

The intro played before cutting back to the two men in Darcy's room.

"You have to look awesome for Lizzie," Bing encouraged, grinning.

Darcy gave him a withering stare, "Really? So we're going on a fashion spree now?"

Bing rolled his eyes, "No, we're raiding through your closet to find something that doesn't make you look like a newsie."

Darcy furrowed his brow, "A newsie? Like, young-Christian-Bale-in-a-disney-movie newsie?"

"Precisely. Jane says that apparently Lizzie has called you that more than once."

"What? When?"

"Doesn't matter," Bing shooed, "What matters is that you don't look like one tonight."

Darcy frowned and looked towards the camera, "Sounds like... fun."

The video then cut to that night with blurry footage of Darcy in the corner of a dark room with his chin tucked against his neck.

"You look miserable," Bing chuckled, coming up next to him.

Darcy glared at him.

"Just ask her to dance, I'm sure she'll agree."

"I hate dancing."

"Not with her you don't. Here, I'll help: Hey, Lizzie!" Bing shouted, stepping out of frame.

Darcy's eyes widened substantially as he shot invisible daggers at Bing.

Bing winked at him before sweeping away from them and into a different room, leaving Darcy alone.

The camera quickly dropped down by Darcy's side, showing only his legs and the pair of pale ones walking up to him.

"Lizzie... hello..."

"Heeyyyy," She replied back, her tone clearly dripping in distaste and discomfort, "Was Bing here just a moment ago?"

"Yeah, yes, he, um... was. But now he's... not."

"Yeah. I... see that."

"Would you enjoy to, um, dance?" Darcy blurted, before hastily adding, "With me?"

A moment of silence passed. A moment Lizzie remembered as feeling like it lasted an hour. Now she knew the feeling must have been mutual. She had assumed the dance offer was either one of two things: one, that he was randomly attempting politeness (unlikely) or two, that he was trying to gloat that she was having a miserable time herself and thus attempting to rub it in her face with a not-so-metaphorical victory dance (very likely).

_She'd had no idea..._

"Okay," The reply finally came.

The video cut again to later that night, with Caroline holding the camera (oddly rear faced, for once she didn't have a camera positioned to face herself) and walking with Darcy down an empty hallway, "I can't believe you danced with her. What, did you have to teach her the steps as you went along or did you just let her stumble along with you?"

"Shut up, Caroline."

"Oh, come on!" She huffed, "We both know that whole family is a total joke. I mean, Jane is admittedly sweet but even her personality can't save her whole family. It's ridiculous."

They pushed through a door and began into another hallway.

"Lydia's a mess. Lizzie is annoying. The mother is completely insane. The father can't do basic economics..."

"And you can?"

"I bet I could if I tried," she replied, genuinely believing that.

You could practically hear Darcy roll his eyes, "When in your life have you ever tried to do anything?"

Caroline scoffed, "I resent that statement! In case you’ve forgotten, I'm the reason this whole party is going well in the first place! If it had been up to Bing, this party would just be five guys with a few ordered-in pizzas. And then where would we be?"

"We'd be enjoying cardboard tasting pizza without the annoyance and drama that surrounds having so many absurd guests. This sounds like a much better solution to me."

"Which is precisely why you weren't planning this party either," she continued, as they pushed through another door, "And anyway-"

The camera stopped as the couple came to a halt.

The lens auto focused to land on Jane. And she was kissing someone. Someone who wasn't Bing.

Everything got blurry after that, the camera's view dropped down and there was scuffling and then a door closed.

The bright lights from the previous hallway flooded the room again, and Caroline struggled to re-center the camera on a quickly moving Darcy.

"Where are you going?" Caroline asked, rushing in a failed attempt to keep up with his pace.

Darcy's fists were balled with anger and he was walking faster and with more purpose than Lizzie had ever seen— which meant something, because this was a man who always walked with a purpose.

"Where the hell do you think I'm going, I'm going to find Bing!"

The video cut off and the end screen showed.

It took Lizzie a full minute before she could even move. She blinked over and over before finally snapping out of her shock.

How on earth had that happened?

Jane was the most loyal soul in the universe, she would never cheat on anyone, and especially not on Bing!

She replayed that kiss. Over and over. Wondering what it could mean.

It was only a moment. It was absurd how perfect the framing was. The man has started the kiss the moment the camera landed on him and the camera was torn away right as you saw Jane move.

Lizzie narrowed her eyes and replayed it. And replayed. And replayed.

She shook her head, "This is bullshit."

The more she watched, the more she was able to piece together. The man must have caught her off guard, turned her around while she was in the middle of something and laid one on her. It was hard in the dim, LED lighting, but Lizzie saw her shock. Jane's body was stiff and frozen.

And just as she was unfreezing, beginning to understand what was happening and that it must stop, the camera flew away and Caroline and Darcy left the room.

_Those pieces of shit_ , Lizzie thought to herself, _They planted this douchebag to make my sister look bad. They timed him to kiss her in order to frame her. You've got to be shitting me._

_No..._ she paused. _No, Darcy must've had nothing to do with that twisted plan. You can't fake the rage he exuded, storming down that hall to find Bing._

_No, this was all Caroline..._

 

 

  
Episode 45:

"Bing," Darcy said, seriously.

"There's no possible way it's true," Bing replied, deeply in denial.

"Look, I am sorry about it, I didn't trust her before but I never thought she'd do something like this."

"Because she didn't! She couldn't have!" Bing protested.

"Bing, it's on video! I saw it, Caroline saw it, YOU have now seen it! I'm sorry Bing, but you have to come to terms with it. She was kissing Jake. She was being unfaithful to you, even worse, with your own friend! I know you don't want to believe it but that is why you must. If you let this go, then she'll keep doing it to you. She's clearly not loyal to you, and the more you become attached to her, the more this is going to hurt you."

Lizzie paused the video and took a deep breath. Darcy should have been smart enough to recognize that Caroline must have orchestrated the event, but his advice on cutting out a disloyal person before you got too entangled wasn't wrong.

This was changing everything...

 

 

  
Episode 62:

"Alright, listen up."

Lizzy giggled as Fitz held the camera close to his face, secretly.

"Darce is about to come back out of the gas station any minute now, so I gotta say this fast, but I just met the illustrious Lizzie B. that we've all heard so much about. Guys, guys, the thing is: he isn't wrong. Lizzie is bomb, you guys."

_"What are you doing?_ " Darcy's distinctive voice asked from off screen. Lizzie watched as he climbed into the car next to Fitz, "Would you care to explain why you’re using my camera?"

"Corroborating your opinion of Lizzie. Really, she's amazing."

Darcy grabbed the camera back, "Yes, I believe I was aware of that."

"Seriously though, if I wasn't gay you would have to watch your back."

Darcy furrowed his eyebrows, "Duly noted?"

Fitz laughed, "Lizzie B is probably the funniest and most genuine person in the world. She gets the Fitz stamp of approval."

"I'll be sure to tell her of her award immediately," Darcy joked, buckling himself in.

"Honestly, though, Darcy," Fitz began, his happy demeanor earning a more serious tone, "I think she could be really good for you."

Darcy stared back into his friends eyes and gave a sincere nod, "Thank you."

Lizzie bit her lip. She knew she didn't owe him a relationship or anything, but...

Jeez louise, did _everyone_ know? Were Gigi, Fitz, Bing (and Darcy) all supporting this relationship that she just discovered then rejected yesterday?

Charlotte said she knew. Jane had hinted at it.

Was Lizzie the only one who hadn't seen it? Maybe if she'd seen it earlier, she could've...

No. Knowing wouldn't have changed anything except for the demeanor in which she rejected him (which she thoroughly regretted now).

But knowing _this_. About George. About Bing and Jane. About how Darcy did apparently have the capacity to feel and smile and laugh as long as he was around the right people. Knowing this would've changed everything.

It was already changing everything. But now she was too late to fix this mess she’d made.

 

  
Episode 63:

And then this was it. The video where he had confessed his love.

Lizzy had stormed into his office, unable to take the fury that was bubbling within her for the past few days anymore.

And everything had fallen apart.

Lizzie cringed every time she opened her mouth in the video. About how wrong she was. On how little she knew about each and every accusation she spat.

And she cringed at him, too.

Darcy was rude and haughty and douchey, obviously, but through his vlogs, she saw that his attraction for her hadn't been a lie. Not a complete lie, at least. If it was not “love” (which she didn't really think it was), it was at least an infatuation.

But it was genuine.

She hadn't noticed any of this before. Any of his abnormal nervousness that only increased around her. Or how keenly aware he was of himself and his actions around her. Or why he always “happened” to run into her when they were in the same building.

She was too dumb to see beyond her own hatred and notice that he possessed any feelings for her.

And, though she didn't doubt he believed the words he said in his awful confession of love, she was able to recognize he did not word them in the way he might have meant. He was awful with words, especially around her apparently, and his brain must have had ridiculous cartoon sirens going off during the entire emotion-filled encounter.

So, in pain, she watched both sides horribly misunderstand and miscommunicate.

Neither understood the other.

But now, one did. Oh, God, did she understand now.

_What had she done._


	2. A Visit to Pemberley Digital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lizzie still has to shadow at Pemberley Digital after everything that's happened...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long!! Exams got me hard core.  
> Also, I think this chapter might be a little all over the place because I've rushed it to try to get it out sooner for yall.  
> I might come back and revise it later, but for right now, enjoy!

It had been weeks since she’d gotten the link and watched all of his vlogs. Each day she thought about it, she felt even guiltier than the last. 

It was eating her up.

The only thing that made her feel slightly better with the situation was that she’d never have to see Darcy ever again...

At least, she’d thought so.

Upon researching media companies for the next portion of her final thesis project, she couldn’t find a single one that could provide her the kind of shadowing days/times and data that she would need for her project... well, not a single one besides Pemberley Digital.

It would be perfect.

It would be whatever amount of hours she set, and they could set her up with anything she needed in her very own private office.

She’d spent almost a full week staring at the Pemberley Digital application, praying for a miracle to pop up and save her from having to face Darcy again, and at his own company no less.

Alas, there was no other choice.

She squeezed her eyes when she pressed the "submit application" button before slamming the laptop and tossing it to the other side of her bed.

She spent the following week moping around the house, packing for her trip while mentally listing and re-listing every single way this visit could go horribly wrong. Currently she was at a count of 87 different bad things that could happen, and she was aiming to see if she could reach 90 by the end of the day.

Mid-moping, however, she got a notification on her phone, and every emotion she’d ever possessed flipped around inside her at once as she saw that it was a notification for a new Darcy video.

(Yes she has his channel notifications turned on, _shut up._ )

She quickly grabbed the cup of tea she was making and ran back to her room to watch it in private.

* * *

Episode 69:

Darcy looked up from his Kindle as the camera entered the room. He smiled warmly at the person holding the camera, "Gigi, why is it that I feel like you control my vlogs more than I do?"

Gigi plopped down on the couch next to him and joined him in frame, "Because I do."

"And is today just another random 'bother your brother' day or did you have something important to say?"

"I have something _incredibly_ important, actually. Something I learned before the CEO of the company learned it."

Darcy raised an eyebrow, "And what might that be?"

"Well, while you were slacking off today-"

"I had a lunch meeting with a client, Gigi. We spent three hours discussing the differences between media consumed through-"

"Mm, unimportant," Gigi hummed.

Darcy chuckled, turning off his Kindle and giving her his full attention.

"Well, anyway, about an hour after you left for that, Mrs. Reynolds got an application for a new shadow."

"Gigi..." Darcy warned, playfully, "If this is another one of your friends that you're trying to sneak in here just to hang out with them, you know my policy..."

"Don't be ridiculous! This time, it's _your_ friend."

"I don't have friends."

"You said it, not me," she teased.

Darcy sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes, "Just tell me, Georgiana."

"Oh, wow, 'Georgiana'. It's getting serious now," she chuckled. He only looked at her. She huffed, "Fine, I'll give you a hint: who would you simultaneously want most  _and_ least to come to the offices?"

He blinked, "That makes no sense."

"It does if you think hard enough."

"Gigi-"

"I mean, gee I wonder: What friend do you have mixed feelings about is still in school and could be needing to shadow at a digital communications company?"

Realization dawned on him and Lizzie's stomach dropped at how hardened and serious his expression became. If she had doubts about how he felt now, this proved that he really did hate her after everything that happened.

It... _stung_.

It stung because she was finally starting to like him. Definitely not love, but like. Enjoy. The Darcy in these videos- the Darcy that could be happy, that could exist in ease around his loved ones, that defended and _cared for_ his loved ones- this one she could like.

But she knew she'd never have the chance to. She'd gone and fucked it up in that spectacular way that only Lizzie Bennet could.

Besides, even if she could befriend him, he deserved better than that. He deserved to move on from their messy past and be happy. She knew she could probably never make him happy, even if she had accepted to date him in the first place. They could never work; they were just too different.

She clicked out of the video, not having it in her to watch the rest.

* * *

 "You're joking with me, right? This is another one of your pranks?" Darcy had said to Gigi after his mouth started working again.

"Prank-free I swear."

Darcy closed his eyes and attempted to grapple with all this.

"Oh, come on Will! This could mean something! She actively applied to shadow here, and if she watched even a single video of yours then she must know this is your company. She's _choosing_ to come here."

"She probably had no other options. I can't imagine she would choose to come here willingly. She made it quite clear enough that she is not interested in me whatsoever."

"That was before she saw the videos!"

"And you can't prove that she even bothered to open the link!"

"Oh, come on, why wouldn't she? She'd be way too curious to ignore the link forever."

"Or she could've never seen or opened the email in the first place. Look, she deserves better than to have me pining after her during what should be a completely professional and educational visit. It's not fair to her for me to continue bothering her when she's made it very clear she's not interested. She's just here for her thesis, so I'll stay clear of her- _and you will too_."

"But-"

"No, Gigi, no buts!" He replied firmly, "I've already burdened her enough. She'll enjoy her time at Pemberley much more if she never sees me, I guarantee."

"So you don't want to see her?" Gigi asked, finally.

Darcy gave her a tired stare, "You already know the answer to that. Of course I do. But her feelings are more important. And if she doesn't want to see me then I'll see to it that she doesn't."

Gigi stood, turning off the camera and handed it back to him before heading towards the door. She paused for a moment when her hand touched the door knob, turning back. "I think you're making a big mistake," she told him softly.

Darcy didn't respond for a long moment, slowly trailing his fingers along the edges of the camera, "I think I already did that a long time ago."

* * *

"So... is... is your brother here?" Lizzie asked finally as her Pemberley tour came to a close. The minute she saw Gigi Darcy walk up to her and introduce herself to be Lizzie's tour guide for the day, Lizzie had been dying to ask her about him. Where he was, how he was holding up... _how to avoid him..._

Gigi gave a slight smirk, satisfied that Lizzie had finally brought up the topic she wanted to talk about, "Oh, yeah, he's somewhere. I mean, he's in town, but he could easily be out at a business lunch... or on a date..." She dropped it in as casually as she could muster, and pretended to rifle through her files.

"A date?" Lizzie replied, feeling all the wind knock out of her at once.  _Of course he had a girlfriend_.  _He's a successful, rich, handsome businessman._ _Who wouldn't want to date him?_

_Well, besides me._

"I... didn't realize he was... dating. Someone," Lizzie said, trying her best to sound uninterested.

Gigi eyed Lizzie's reaction, satisfied with the way the older girl's face had fallen paler and how obviously terrible she was at pretending to not care.

 _'Doesn't want to see him' my ass_.

Gigi let her face crack into a grin, "I'm kidding."

Lizzie tried her hardest not to let out the breath she had been holding since Gigi had said 'date.'

"Oh," she fake laughed, "Right."

"Oh, crap, you know what?" Gigi said suddenly, hitting her forehead with her palm, "I totally forgot to show you my office! You should know where it is, that way you can just come knock on my door if there's any problems or if you need help with anything. Here, come on," she walked back to the elevators.

"Oh, no, I'm sure it's fine," Lizzie shrugged, "I'll find it later-"

"No way! I can't have you getting lost on your first day. Besides, you're gonna love the view, it's the top floor," she grinned.

Lizzie's smile hollowed as she swallowed nervously.  _Top floor?_ Oh God, her office was probably right next to Darcy's. She followed Gigi into the elevator unwillingly and tried her best to pretend everything was fine.

After all, Gigi had said he probably wasn't here anyway. So she had nothing to be worried about.

Right?  _Right???_

The elevator dinged and opened and Lizzie held her breath, quickly surveying the floor to see if Darcy was there. Luckily, he was no where to be found.

Lizzie let out a sigh of relief.

"It's just down here," she watched Gigi rush down the end of the hall and grab the door handle of a door that had a sharp black font with the name "Darcy" on it, a name that made Lizzie want to pull back and run. _Gigi is also a Darcy, genius,_ she reminded herself. She followed Gigi's ushering into the room and tried to calm down. Geez, since when did she become so paranoid?

It wasn't until the door slammed behind her that her mind registered that the name on the door had also had the title "CEO" underneath it.

 _Fuck_.

“Lizzie...” The one man she'd been so absolutely terrified of seeing again said as he abruptly stood up. Her brain burned with a thousand sirens and panicked thoughts, running through loops of differed levels of shock but finding no words to convey it with.

 _What are you doing?!!_ she scolded herself, _Stop staring at him and say something!!_

“You’re not on a date,” Lizzie blurted, instantly cringing at her idiotic attempt of a response and fighting back the urge to face-palm herself.

“No... I’m... not...?” He furrowed his brow, utterly lost at how on earth she would’ve thought he had a date, “Would you... prefer me to be...?”

“No!” she said quickly— too quickly, “Well, uh, I mean, I guess, if you... wanted... that, um,” _SPEAK BENNET!_ “It’s just Gigi had said... earlier that you had a... date.” _Smoooooooth_.

He narrowed his eyes then blinked, “Well, I... don’t. Have one.”

“Yeah.”

They both petered off into an excruciating silence, each beat of nothingness filling with echoes of things they shouldn't have said and two months worth of reflections on those things.

 "I didn't mean to bother you-" Lizzie started, "I had to shadow another company for my-"

"- no, no, I understand-"

"- and this was the only company that would've worked with my time frames-"

"- of course, I-"

"-But I promise- I'll try to stay out of your way," she assured, perhaps a little too strongly, "I mean, at least when Gigi isn't pushing me into you," she huffed, still fighting back the tremendous waves of embarrassment.

Darcy just stared at her for a long moment before moving around his desk, "You don't need to apologize for your being here, Lizzie. Pemberley is lucky to have you shadowing."

Lizzie let her eyes meet his, looking up at him with confusion.

"You have an impressive GPA and, through personal experience, I know you to be a sharp observer. I hope you'll be able to give a true report of how my company works."

"Well," she spoke, cautious as to how shockingly well this was going, "From what I've seen so far, there's quite a lot of good to report on."

He gave a small smile, "I'm glad."

She scanned his eyes again, unsure what to do with all this.

"I..." she huffed, "I've got to be honest here, I was kind of expecting if we ran into each other ever again, you'd be more... well...  _yell-y_." They hadn't seen each other at all since it happened. All she'd gotten was an email with a Youtube link a few minutes before learning from Charlotte that he had finished his work at Collins & Collins. And even then, he hadn't talked about her in any videos since, whatsoever. The only time she was mentioned was in the last video, and it was clear then that he was not happy with her returning into his life.

Darcy opened his mouth for a moment, closed it, then opened it again, "I'm not mad at you, if that is what you're asking."

"Well you probably should be," she replied honestly.

He furrowed his brow, "I... suppose I could be angry with you if that's what you would prefer...?"

Lizzie blinked, not sure what to do with that, "Did you forget everything that happened in October?"

He gave a wry smile, "Unfortunately, no. But I'm not angry with you, Lizzie," Darcy's sharp blue eyes focused back on her, "I was never angry with you."

He wasn't mad. How wasn't he mad?! How wasn't he fuming and demanding she leave his office and avoid him for the rest of her stay?!

"But... _how?"_

"Because you weren't wrong."

Lizzie gave a bitter laugh.

"I mean... well, you  _were_ wrong. In some things, at least. In others, you... you were right. So, I apologize."

Lizzie blinked for a few moments, processing this, before answering, "Thank you."

She hadn't expected him to apologize. Especially not just like this, acting as if she'd done nothing wrong.

"Well, I would like to apologize, too," Lizzie replied, "I didn't realize-"

"But how could you?" He replied with an earnest shrug, "I'd never shared my side of the story with you. How were you to know not to trust him? You had every right to believe as you did."

"I shouldn't have assumed everything and accused you so quickly. And I definitely shouldn't have attacked you when you were just trying to be honest about your feelings."

"Yes, you should've," he nodded calmly with a smile, "I was admittedly an asshole when I opened up that conversation. I deserved it."

Lizzie searched his eyes for a long moment. He truly meant all this. How could he truly mean all this?!

Lizzie wanted to go back in time and kick herself for  _ever_ thinking that he was cruel and unforgiving. How could this be the same man she had despised for so long? The same man who she had practically spat on when he had confessed his feelings for her, believing that she was above him.

The same man standing before her, proving again and again that she had never been _more_ wrong about anything.

Lizzie smiled and turned away, "If someone would've told us two months ago that today we'd be standing here, arguing about how the _other_ person was right for once..."

"I suppose it wouldn't be too surprising, though," he added, good-naturedly, "After all, arguing has always seemed to be our forte, no matter the subject."

Lizzie chuckled, "Yeah, you're right."

The two stood there, sharing small smiles.

Maybe they weren't as distant as she'd thought they were. Maybe they could make this potentially-running-into-each-other-in-the-halls thing work.

~~Maybe they could make something _more_ work.~~

"I should probably get going," Lizzie decided, that previous thought scaring her a bit. Not for it actually happening- she knew that wasn't an option- but the fact that she maybe kinda wanted it to?

"Oh, right," he said, snapping out of their long, shared look, "Right, of course, I apologize for keeping you. You probably have a lot to do to settle in," he rambled slightly, walking toward the door to see her out.

_God damnit why was he such a gentleman?_

He opened the door handle, "And let me know if there's anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable."

"Thank you," Lizzie replied with genuine gratitude. She moved to walk out the door before stopping and turning back, "And... thank you. For not being...  _yell-y_."

"I could say the same to you."

Lizzie looked into his eyes for a moment longer, feeling like there was something more to say that she hadn't said yet.

"You're a good guy, Darcy," she told him, unsure where the sentiment had come from but believing in it fully. She reached out to give a supportive hand on his forearm, but quickly realized that was the dumbest idea she'd ever made and awkwardly retracted it back before scurrying out the door and trying her hardest not to scream all the way back to the elevator.

_They'd had a great little moment and she just had to ruin it, huh_??

 

* * *

Lizzie bit her lip, mentally working on the words she was going to use for her report. Collins & Collins had been useful because she had been able to look at both positives and negatives of the company. With Pemberley, though... she honestly wasn't seeing many negatives... well, actually, to be more exact, she was seeing none.

But the environment here was wonderful, the people were all happy to be working here, work was produced with insanely efficient timing and was still amazing quality.

There was nothing to criticize. Which was bizarre. Did she need to have something to criticize? Should she go walk around in search of something to discuss negatively? That would be absurd! _... Right?_

Yet, there she was, roaming the halls looking for something anyway.

She felt guilty about it, sure, but she could only write "this place is outstanding" in so many ways before the report just seemed to be a glorified advertisement for Pemberley.

But anyway, even if she didn't find any negatives, she could maybe discover something else positive to write about. Perhaps even a secret door that led to a hidden tunnel and where she could spend the rest of the day going on a fantasy adventure!

She frowned.

Maybe she needed to take a nap in one of the napping pods. She was getting a little punchy with all of this writing.

Lizzie sighed, before turning down a different hallway. She had no clue where the napping pods were, but she was determined to find them. Or at least someone who could show them to her.

Or just someone in general.

_God, she was bored._

She checked her watch with a grimace. It was 1:55 and she had been in her office working with no break since 8:30 A.M. She could almost feel the wires in her brain sizzling from overuse. She could also feel her stomach grumbling. Mrs. Reynolds had kindly provided Lizzie's desk with a small basket of welcome candies, but Tootsie Rolls and Jolly Ranchers could only take a girl so far.

_Ooh, maybe she could find Gigi and go out for lunch somewhere with her!_

Having an actual conversation with a human being sounded wonderful right about now.

Maybe Gigi was over by the-

"Oh!" Lizzie exclaimed, bumping directly into someone as she turned the corner.

"Crap, I'm sorry," she apologized, tucking her hair behind her ear and looking up at the man whom she had just completely rammed into.

"Darcy..." her chest constricted with nerves. Why on earth did she keep running into him at the worst times?! Though, then again, when  _wasn't_ a bad time considering their complicated relationship.

"Lizzie..." he replied.

"That seems to be our catchphrase nowadays," Lizzie attempted to joke lightly. It seemed like all they ever said around each other was the other's name.

"Yes, indeed it does," he replied back, trying his best to participate in the joke.

Lizzie's eyes caught of the item in his hands and chuckled, "You sure do film a lot, huh?" she pointed to his recording camera with a small smile.

He ran a hand through his hair, "Yes, well, uh," he gave a one-shouldered shrug, "I run a digital media company. It's kind of expected."

"Right, right."

"You seem to be rather good at always catching me in the midst of filming, however."

"What, like you don't film everything anyway?"

“Yes and no. I just film when there's something interesting."

"Sooo, what would be today's recording-worthy interesting event?"

"Actually, I was just shooting some establishing shots for my travel over to get lunch. It’s a locally-owned burger diner a few blocks from here, and my viewers tend to enjoy seeing shots of me traveling from one place to another."

“William Darcy eats _burgers_?” Lizzie teased, only taking that part of the genuinely interesting stuff he said, “How uncivilized.”

“Well... would you like to accompany me? After all, by your estimates, you’d probably have to teach me how to hold a burger in the first place, since I'm so 'unaccustomed' with the dish.”

She laughed. It was the most Darcy kind of joke someone could make. It was as if Darcy was parodying himself. _Now that’d be a skit she'd love to see in one of his videos..._

It took her a long moment before she realized he had just asked her out to lunch with him. _Oh_.

Her easy laughter dropped like a ton of bricks in her chest. Her mind ran through every possible excuse she could make to not go.

_Not hungry?_ Psh, people from the next county could hear her growling stomach.

_Too busy?_ Her brain was too fried to enter her office again for the next few hours.

_Vegetarian lie?_ That would be a stretch, considering-

“That’d be great,” She found herself saying.

_HOW ON EARTH HAD THAT COME OUT?_

“Wonderful,” he nodded at her as a smile grew slightly across his face, “Alright then, follow me.”

He stepped past her and started leading her through the hallways silently, giving her an opportunity to catch her breath.

What was she doing?! Going to lunch with Darcy?! They weren’t even going with, like, Gigi or Fitz or Bing! It would only be the two of them! Probably crammed into a teeny booth, with no distractions or excuses or the ability to fall back on a friend when the two of them got awkward and started to fight.

This spelled absolute disaster...

Nonetheless, she followed him down a few flights of stairs and to the parking garage. His parking spot was reserved as one of the very first spots, and he managed to walk around the car and open her side’s car door for her.

“Oh, thank you,” she blinked, a little stunned. Again, since when was Darcy so gentlemanly? Or had he always been, and she never let herself see it?

“You’re welcome,” he replied, closing the door for her before returning to his side.

_Well this would be one hell of a lunch..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thank you for all the overwhelming support on the first chapter!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3  
> Please keep commenting and telling me how you feel about it!
> 
> Again, sorry this one took so long, I'd had the final draft ready when I realized I wanted to completely rewrite their meeting, cuz previously it was almost the same as the real video. Let me know what you thought of my new changes to that scene!!!


	3. A Visit to Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens at the lunch between Darcy and Lizzie?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am SO sorry this took me so long!!  
> i've been doing massive, overhaul rewrites of the rest of the fic, so its been taking me a long time to rework everything!  
> hopefully the bulk of the reworking is done though, and then final two chapters will be out soon after this!!  
> thanks for sticking w me, enjoy :)

Episode 70:

“What do you have to say for yourself?!” Gigi exclaimed, barging into Darcy’s office, phone camera on and pointed in his face.

Darcy furrowed his brow, “I’m... sorry?”

“Lizzie just told me everything!”

“Everything? What everything?”

“You two went out. To _lunch_.”

“... Yes?”

“Come on! You two were alone!" she squealed, jumping onto his office couch with a bounce, "Together! Talking! Joking! Eating burgers! How are you not freaking out!”

“Alright, I think that’s enough of the interrogation,” he scooted over on his rolling chair and grabbed the phone out of her hands.

She crossed her arms, “Ugh, you're the worst! They’ll never forgive you for this, William. I guarantee that within the hour you post this, there’ll be dozens of new fanfics online giving a painfully detailed account of what they think happened. Sooo why don’t you just tell us now, and clear the air to prevent all the weird and kinky images that your viewers’ dirty minds can conjure up?”

“That’s assuming I’ll be keeping any of this in the video.”

“Oh, come on, Will. You’ll be keeping this in the video. I'm sure you're just dying to tell all your viewers about it. And now I've just given you the perfect situation to do so! You’re welcome. Now give us answers!”

“Well, if you're so concerned about my viewers, then perhaps I suppose you'll have to wait along with all the rest of them and see what happened at lunch when I upload my next vlog...” Darcy was still behind the camera in this shot but even so, the smugness in his voice was clear.

“WHAT?!” Gigi shrieked. “WILLIAM FREDERICK DAR—“

The title sequence jumped in, cutting Gigi off, and Lizzie couldn’t help but give a laugh.

A little caption saying “8 hours earlier” popped up on the screen as a time lapse of Darcy working in his office began. After watching the sun move farther and farther across the sky behind Darcy's repetitive reading and typing, his concentration began melting. More and more, he had started tapping his pencil mindlessly or spinning back and forth in his chair. Finally he just stopped, effectively taking the camera out of time lapse mode and beginning to gather his stuff along with the camera, “Lunch break. Three hours of mulling through paperwork for a Domino feature and I cannot think anymore,” he walked out the door and down the hall as he talked, “Gigi left to get food with one of her college friends, which means I’m on my own. And I’m thinking burgers...”

A collection of establishing shots followed, him going down the stairs, past the court yard, down a hallway, and-

“Oh!”

The camera stumbled in Darcy’s hands and he clutched it tighter against his chest, accidentally blocking some of the screen with his palms. Yet there was still enough just to see a peak of the girl in front of him: Lizzie Bennet. Lizzie skipped ahead on the video, not wanting to relive how awkward she had felt in that moment.

But soon enough, she was past it, jump-cutting forward in time to their car ride.

Though this time, she wasn't blocked in the shot. It was completely illuminated by the sunlight through the car windows and she luckily didn’t think she looked terrible. Except for those stray hairs on her left side...

"-ut I don't know how to record," Lizzie was saying, spinning the camera around to try and figure it out, "...how long do you press it? Did it- how do you-"

"You're already rolling," Darcy chuckled.

"Oh," Lizzie brought the camera away from her face, "I mean, right, right, of course, I knew that," Lizzie cleared her throat, aiming the camera at Darcy at he gave her a knowing side-eye for the obvious lie. 

"No, not at me. No one cares to watch me drive." He nodded toward Lizzie's passenger window, "Film outside the car once we start moving again. It'll look cool in transition."

The video fell back into the background music as shots of passing cars and buildings filled the screen. Lizzie couldn't say she was surprised that he'd cut out the conversation that followed that.

* * *

" _It'll look cool in transition,_ " she mocked back at him, but doing as he said and filming out her window, "Aren't Youtubers supposed to be narcissistic camera whores?"

Darcy blinked at that sentence, unsure how to respond, "... I... suppose a fair amount of them are. Though I'd like to think it's not a required facet of the job description."

She chuckled, watching as a red Fiat sped past in the lane beside them, "I just... I don't know, it's weird that almost all of the screen time you have in your vlogs is because someone else forced a camera into your face. And even _that's_ still rare."

Darcy didn't say anything for a long moment. Lizzie started zooming in on the red Fiat as a joke- they had dozens of bumper stickers on their car, all with vague words like HOPE or LAUGH. What did that even mean? What was the underlying idea behind-

"So... you watched my videos then?"

Lizzie froze, the air suddenly becoming denser. _Oh crap_.

She hadn't thought anything of her comment, but of course it meant something. They still hadn't talked about his vlogs yet. Sure, they'd apologized, but they had barely referenced what they were apologizing for. And they certainly hadn't gotten into the details of the fact that Lizzie now had seen the entirety of Darcy's life for the past few years in detail on Youtube despite only having one conversation in the past two months.

"Yeah," Lizzie sort-of choked out, "I- I did." She didn't move the camera from where it was pointed out the window, hoping her filming of the passing buildings would serve as a good excuse for her not having to look in Darcy's direction for this conversation. The red Fiat was long gone, not that Lizzie would even be able to focus on anything other than her internal screaming at the moment.

"And?"

Lizzie's eyes scanned around as she tried to come up with something to say. What _could_ she say? _Yeah, it turns out you're actually an amazing guy and I'm the worst human being on the planet?_

"... You never answered my email," he continued, softly. Lizzie had never heard him speak so softly before.

"What could I have said?" She asked him back, turning to him with guilt in her eyes.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

She turned back to the window, "It's not like I didn't think about it. But every time I started a reply, I ended up just trashing it. I mean, what would it even matter anyway? We were out of each other's lives, for what I thought would be forever. I didn't think there was anything I could say that would change anything. The damage had been done."

"Maybe it wouldn't have _changed_ anything, but it might have helped," he replied, before muttering slightly, "Could've caused a few less sleepless nights."

Lizzie's eyes slid back to him. _Less sleepless nights_ . How many sleepless nights had he had over this? That was certainly something he'd never shown in his vlogs. He hardly seemed phased at all on camera. Though maybe that was just a testament to how over her he was _now_. Maybe he'd had sleepless nights the first week or so, then got over her. Learned he could get over her easier than he thought. Learned he really was wrong about the "love" part.

"You should probably cut all this out" is all Lizzie said in response.

Darcy blinked, "I... wasn't planning to keep it in... It is a private conversation-"

"I mean cut _all_ of this out. All of me."

Darcy looked taken aback. "Is... that what you want?"

Lizzie frowned and shut the camera off, "I watched your videos, Darcy. I saw the comments. I know how your viewers feel about me."

Darcy didn't know how to respond to that, "They just... haven't seen you in your good moments..."

"There's good moments?" Lizzie gave a bitter chuckle, "Come on, even I'll admit that I was nothing but an asshole to you for almost the entire time we knew each other."

“Yes, and so was I to you,” he countered, “They just never saw much of that part. You can't expect people who weren't in the situation to understand. And what does it even matter what they think, anyway? It's my channel, not theirs. I decide what to put on it and they can like it or not, but it should not and _will not_ be their control," he answered, certain.

“I just don't think it's a wise idea," Lizzie shook her head.

"You're speaking to the man who asked you out in the middle of an argument. I don’t believe I am admittedly very good with following wise ideas."

Lizzie stared at him for a moment before her face broke into a grin. She shook her head with a chuckle and turned back toward the window, finding the Fiat was somehow next to them again.

NEW BEGINNINGS one of their bumper stickers said.

_Yeah. Yeah, maybe..._

Eventually, the two arrived at the burger place and stepped inside, joining the long line of lunch rush as they surveyed the menus on the wall above.

Darcy was filming a 360 degree pan across the interior of the restaurant- secretly lingering more than a little longer than he should have on Lizzie as she debated which burger to get. He made a mental reminder to edit that part out of the video, refusing to be _that_ obvious.

Lizzie turned, losing her focus on the choices of burgers, just as Darcy brought the camera away from her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot. I was supposed to be translating the menus from common-folk speak into your language. I know you rich people have real trouble with the dialect..." she teased, praying that it was coming across as friendly and non-mean as she was intending it.

She grinned when it did, catching the twitch of a smile from Darcy at the quip.

“I believe I’m perfectly well-equipped to understand the _dialect_. After all, I spent months with you Bennets. I think I should’ve learned by now.”

Lizzie scoffed, the grin still tugging at her lips, “So William Darcy makes jokes now, huh? Hath hell frozen over?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but the person in front of them had just finished with the cashier. So, instead, he gave her a side-eyed, playful glare for the comment then stepped forward and ordered.

After paying, the pair grabbed a booth by the shop window and waited for their order to be delivered to the table.

"'Now serving hot-dogs!'" Lizzie read off the little stand-up ad that was centered at their table. "Oh, wow, what an expansion. I mean, _hot dogs?_ At a _burger_ place? I think that's a little too radical, if you ask me."

Darcy shook his head, that twitch of a smile returning.

It made Lizzie proud to be able to crack his robot facade, even for just a bit. Now that she knew from his videos that he wasn't actually a machine, she was intent on digging to find his humanity at every chance she could.

"I mean, it makes objective sense."

"Oh, does it now?" Lizzie teased.

"It's a burger and sandwich place," he continued, either not registering her teasing tone or just ignoring it, "And a hot dog is technically a sandwich. Therefore, the most logical next step would be including hot dogs in the shop."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up," Lizzie interrupted him, " _What did you just say?"_

* * *

Episode 70 (cont.):

The panning footage of the car ride over and the interior of the restaurant jump cut straight into the two sitting at a booth together.

Lizzie was pointing the camera at Darcy in the seat across from her, “Tell the people exactly what you just told me, Darcy.” She had said it seriously, but the underlying humor of the conversation was clear.

“Really?” He looked back and forth between Lizzie and the camera lens, “You’re attempting to use my audience against me, hm?”

“Oh, contrare,” she replied, “I’m simply trying to expose you for the lunatic you are.”

“It’s the truth!”

“Fine, then you’ll feel entirely comfortable with sharing it with all your viewers!”

He sighed, giving her a long look complete with that small smile, before turning to address the camera directly: “A hotdog is undoubtedly a sandwich and I will stand by that statement to my grave.”

Lizzie flipped the camera to herself, “Can you _believe_ him? I mean, one moment you're breaking bread with the guy at lunch, and the next, you find out that his entire foundation of life is incorrect?”

“No, no,” Darcy was arguing in the background, “If you look up hotdog in the dictionary, it calls it a sandwich!" Lizzie turned the camera back to him, as if to humor his obviously incorrect arguments. He was furiously typing on his phone before nodding at the results, "I submit to the court:” He held up his phone, displaying the [ dictionary.org ](http://dictionary.org/) app which did indeed support his claims: "a sandwich consisting of a frankfurter in a split roll."

“Of course you’d have that app already downloaded on your phone,” Lizzie shook her head with narrowed yet mirthful eyes.

“You’re upset that I have factual evidence to back up my argument.”

“It’s _one_ piece of bread, though! One! Sandwiches have _two!_ What are you going to say next, that a taco is a sandwich?”

“I suppose technically it is, since it is bread-like with some form of meat within it, yes!”

“Oh my god, what is wrong with you?!”

“Look, do you think I enjoy saying that a taco is a sandwich? Of course not, a taco decidedly has neither the aesthetic or tied connotations of a sandwich, and yet it is definitional fact, I cannot argue with it.”

“BS! Tacos are not sandwiches and neither are hotdogs,” she crossed an arm over her chest and leaned back in her booth, playfully annoyed with everything he was saying.

“Cite one source supporting that statement,” he countered.

“Me, myself, and I. That’s 3. Oh, yeah, _and the rest of the normal world!_ ”

“Alright, well what if I took a hotdog sausage and put it in between two regular slices of bread? It would be two slices, but it’s still a hotdog.”

"... Okay," a waitress laughed slightly as the couple realized she had probably heard a little too much of their argument, "I have one double cheeseburger with ketchup and pickles, and one with just ketchup and a side of fries."

The two awkwardly accepted their orders and waited for the waitress to leave before looking back at each other.

Lizzie broke out into giggles from behind the camera and Darcy bit back a smile.

The video cut to the end screen, and Lizzie grinned as it ended.

She and Darcy had been through a lot of shit- maybe even too much to ever fully repair- but here was one moment beyond all that. One truly happy moment between the two. Maybe this would never happen again. Maybe they’d never do lunch again, or maybe they would. Or maybe it wouldn’t even matter because after she would stop shadowing Pemberley, maybe they’d fall out of touch and never speak for the rest of their lives.

But at least she still had this moment- immortalized both on film and in her memory.

One hour without the drama and anger and pride and prejudices.

One hour where the two ignored everything that had happened between them before and just enjoyed the ease of each other's company.

If she were being honest, Lizzie hadn't felt like she had at that lunch in a long time. She didn't quite know what the feeling was exactly.

Just the warm feeling of home- at least, a home without the overbearing mother and reckless sister.

Just... _home_.

* * *

 

"Sorry, I think I gotta take this real quick," Lizzie told Darcy and Gigi, interrupting the conversation about dinner restaurants they had been having. She stood up and stepped out of the shiny doors of Darcy's office.

"Alright, what is so dire that requires twenty texts and three voicemails?" Lizzie asked, "I was kind of in the middle of something." The Darcys had been helping her with questions she'd had regarding their business for her thesis, and they were deciding where to go to get food and continue the conversation. Not only did talking to them make her researching of the company one thousand times easier, but getting to know the two- especially the two together- was easily one of her favorite things about this trip so far. They really brought the best out of each other. Gigi helped Lizzie see those sides of Darcy she had only previously seen on his vlogs, and it would be an understatement to say that Lizzie was enjoying it.

"Well stop being in the middle of something- this is more important."

The tone of Charlotte's voice immediately set Lizzie on high alert. Whatever this was, she could tell it wasn’t a joke. This was serious.

"Did you know George Wickham was an instagram model?"

"Wha... Why...? You called me for this?"

"Just listen to me, Lizzie. He’s got a following on Instagram and Vine and lots of places I guess. Now he's... he's planning to post a sex tape on Valentine’s Day that people can pay to watch."

"....Oh... kay? Charlotte, wha-"

"Don't you get it? You can't have a sex tape without at least one other person."

She furrowed her brow, still not following.

"Lizzie. _It's Lydia._ "

* * *

 Lizzie collapsed on her bed.

It had been a long 48 hours. Lots of tears, lots of crying. Lots of guilt, and fear, and worry.

But she knew she’d never go to sleep by thinking about that, so she forced the thoughts out of her brain as much as possible.

She turned on her side and wrapped her arms around a pillow, frowning.

And now, staring across her dark room lit only by the moonlight through the blinds, her mind returned to a different distressing problem. One she’d been working on for almost a year now: William Darcy.

She squeezed her eyes shut, the memory of him seeing her off from Pemberley seared in her brain.

He’d held open the door for her as she rushed into his chauffeur’s car, and there was that moment. One single second.

Their eyes had met, and Lizzie felt the world spin around her. She'd felt the ground shift beneath her feet and suddenly everything felt different about Darcy. She didn't have a name for the feeling- there didn't seem to be one in existence that fit it- but it was  _something_. Something important.

“Lizzie,” he’d started, as if to say something urgent, but he seemed to have lost his words after just that, and instead settled for, “Have a safe flight.”

She hadn't known what to say to that, letting him close the door behind her wordlessly and turning her back as the car slid out onto the street.

She sighed and flipped to lay on her left side, still uncomfortable in the bed.

If she were being honest… she missed him already.

She didn't know what to make out of her mess of feelings for him, but she did know that she wished he was here right now.

She especially knew that that didn’t make any sense. William Darcy was maybe the last person in the entire world who would ever be good at comforting someone emotionally. She smiled imagining it, the idea of him trying and failing to string words together in a way that could make her feel better about all this. Perhaps even pull out his dictionary.com app again. She let out a chuckle at the thought.

But in all honestly she knew that was probably untrue. Darcy was bad at social interactions and bad at wording things sometimes, but it was obvious how good he was in crisis.

_I suppose it’s because he’s had a lot of practice with crises_.

The thought saddened her, and she hugged the pillow a little tighter.

Yeah, he’d probably be really good at it. And even if he wasn’t, she found that she didn’t care.

And that idea surprised her.

Yeah, sure, she’d be enjoying their adventures at Pemberley, and every day when she went home she found herself excited for what they'd do the next day, but she had never _missed_ him.

She knew she missed him now.

He seemed like he truly was such a good friend. She recalled how she’d scoffed at that idea six months ago, how the idea of him being a good friend was just something the people around him said to make themselves feel better about the fact that they were around him.

Now she could see it. All the stories of things he did for people, like a million little fractiles. Good friend, good brother, good _person_.

She wondered, in fact not for the first time, if he’d be a good boyfriend.

She wondered if she even wanted him to be.

She flopped backwards to lay on her back, leaving the pillow where it had been on her side. Did it even matter what she wanted if he wasn’t even interested in her like that anymore?

And even if he had liked her or whatever at Pemberley, who knew what this new ordeal could have changed for their relationship. He already disapproved of Lydia. And sure, she hadn’t given consent for the sex tape, but if it went live, it would be a part of her reputation now forever. She could see headlines now: “CEO William Darcy caught going to dinner with sister of sex scandal.” Lizzy cringed.

She could already imagine Ms. De Bourgh screeching at the idea of Darcy spending his time with someone from such a family.

But Darcy’s reputation was almost synonymous with Pemberley’s reputation, and Pemberley's reputation was important. So what if this is where he finally drew the line in their friendship?

She closed her eyes.

She hoped the Darcy she knew wouldn’t react like that. She hoped he cared more than to just cut off people like that.

But she also could understand if he would.

She scrubbed her hands down her face, rubbing at her eyes.

Why was everything so difficult all the time?

_Maybe because it’s 2:00 and you’ve barely slept for days._

She frowned.  _Good point, me_.

Yeah, she really needed to just go to bed. 

This stuff gets better with time, right? Maybe by the end of the week she'd be over it all, and wouldn't think about Darcy anymore.

_You haven't stopped thinking about Darcy once since the moment he literally waltzed into your life nine months_ _ago_.

Huh. She blinked to herself, realizing how true that statement really was. All she'd done for months was complain about him and antagonize him and then after October, all she'd done was stress about him. He had almost single-handedly consumed most of the past year for her.

Maybe... maybe that meant something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! comment and kudos plsssss!  
> <3 <3 <3


	4. A Visit to Netherfield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Valentine's Day passes along with the disappearance of the website, things begin to grow quieter. _Lonelier._

Episode 72:

Darcy sat in his office chair, staring out the window for a long, long time.

"You have to stop moping."

Darcy jumped slightly in his seat, turning to see the camera being pointed at him by Gigi in his doorway.

“I’m not moping.”

Gigi aimed the camera to herself so she could give a pointed stare-into-the-camera-like-in-The-Office look. She spun it back to her brother and scanned it across the half-finished work strewn across his usually immaculately organized desk. “Oh yeah, we all TOTALLY believe you.”

“Gigi, seriously. Drop it.”

“No. You’re my brother, and my best friend, and all you’ve been doing for days is sitting here like this. It’s just like it was back in the fall—“

“Alright, then would you like me to do? Go knock on her door and demand we rehash all the reasons why she hates me?” He snapped, or at least as much as Darcy could snap at his baby sister. He scrubbed a hand across his face.

“Call her! Or text her!" she argued, "Or, hell, go up there and visit her! Come on, you two were seriously hitting it off! If you don’t get off your butt and DO something—“ she cut herself off, hesitating, before finishing “you might lose any chance of ever getting her.”

“There’s nothing to get, Gigi, she made that exceptionally clear in October.”

“Yes, but now is different! She doesn’t feel that way anymore, I can tell! You have to trust me!”

“Okay, maybe she feels differently. So what? It doesn’t mean that I…” he sighed, “Look, we’re just friends. At least I hope we‘re friends. I know you only want to help, Gigi, but that relationship has already gotten messed up enough. I think it’s best to just leave it where it is.”

“But-”

“Not to mention she’s busy with her sister. That should be her priority right now. Reintroducing our problems in a time like this will only make matters worse. Just drop it.”

Lizzie paused the video in frustration, clenching her fists to prevent herself from pulling her hair out. _No! Do not drop it!_ **_Please_ ** _come knock on my door and tell me what you think of our relationship. Because the only two things I can think about at the moment are you and Lydia, and I’d really appreciate to have a resolution to at least one of those things!_

But Darcy’s words echoed in her head: _“Okay, maybe she feels differently. So what? It doesn’t mean that I…”_

Doesn’t mean that he what?

_“It doesn’t mean that I still want to date her.”_

She wanted to believe that’s not what he was going to say, but that’s all her mind kept circling back to. It made sense. After everything she put him through, he had to have removed his heart from their relationship a long time ago.

He said it himself in the video: they were just friends. And that’s apparently all he wants it to be.

Shouldn’t that be what she wants, too?

So then why did the idea of that bother her so much?

* * *

Gigi turned off the camera, “Do you realize that Lizzie could be watching this video?”

Darcy furrowed his brow.

“If you have something to say to her, say it now.”

“She doesn’t watch them anymore," he mumbled, starting to organize what was admittedly a distressingly messy desk, "I doubt she’s looked at my channel again since that first day I sent her the link.”

“Why on earth would you think that?”

“That or she does still watch them but she’s not interested in me."

“What are you talking about?”

“The video from before she shadowed here," he looked up at her, "I know you purposefully kept in all the footage of me saying I still had feelings for her. So either she saw it and wants to avoid the matter, or she stopped watching. Either way, this little strategy you’ve planned out won’t work. So just stop.”

“No. I won’t stop. Just because you’re freaking blind to Lizzie’s feelings— which everyone else here can _clearly_ see— doesn’t mean I will be too. If you don’t want to do anything, then whatever. But I don’t think that’s fair to either of you.”

"Gigi. My relationship to her doesn't matter right now. She's busy dealing with the whole website situation—"

"Which is exactly another reason why you should talk to her!"

He exhaled.

"Come on, Will! You can't keep hiding everything from everyone all the time. I'm sure the Bennets wanna know who helped them-"

"I don't want her gratitude, Gigi. I did it for her because I care about her. I don't want to seem entitled to some kind of reward-"

"It's not about a reward! You should know Lizzie better than that by now. She doesn't care about what people think they're entitled to. What would matter to her is the fact that you went so far out of your way because you care about her. You don't think that wouldn't mean something to her?"

"I _think_ it would only serve as a way to pressure her into a relationship she doesn't want. I don't..." he looked out the window with a sigh, "I don't want her to spend time with me because she feels like she owes me something. That would be more painful than having her hate me, I think."

Gigi frowned. "Fine. Then no website talk. But how about you just... talk to her normally then? Why don't you just ask her how she's holding up? I know you have her number. It doesn't even have to be about your relationship with her. Just a check-in. For a  _friend_."

Darcy watched out the window as a bird land on its nest in the adjacent building, hesitating for a long moment, "What would I even say?"

"Uh... maybe try saying how you feel?" she replied like it was obvious.

"Yeah, well I did that in October and look where that got me."

"No," she contradicted, "it got you there because you _hadn't_ been telling each other how you felt all the months before that."

He looked down. Yeah, she was right.

Gigi exhaled, "I'm gonna be posting this vlog today, are you _sure_  you wanna add anything else to it?"

He shook his head no.

"Alright, fine. Then, I'm gonna go edit it. But... just  _think_ about everything I said, alright?"

He gave his sister a small smile before nodding, "Thanks, Gigi."

"Oh, also," she turned around right before she was about to walk out of the room, "I made cookies last night so if you want to stop moping around in your office and come into mine, there's not a limit per person," she smiled.

Darcy chuckled lightly, "Chocolate chip or ginger snaps?"

"Both, _obviously_. Who do you take me for, William? Some kind of animal?" And with that she was gone.

Darcy sighed, staring down at his phone. He wanted to call her. He wanted nothing _more_ than to call her, to talk with her, to listen to her laugh. But any time he thought of it, all he could hear ringing in his ears were her words from the fall: "you are the last man in the world who I could ever fall in love with."

He reached down and turned over his phone, before pulling out his laptop and opening up the spreadsheets he had been working on earlier that day.

* * *

Episode 72 (cont.):

The video jump cut forward in time to Gigi leaving his office, and Lizzie could only wonder what the rest of the conversation could have been. They must've cut it out because it had been a conversation about her. What could they have been saying? Good stuff? Bad stuff? They had to cut it out, so she assumed it was probably bad stuff. Probably confirmation of Darcy's lack of romantic interest in her anymore.

She was so lost in thought wondering that she almost missed Gigi saying her name.

Lizzie’s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she rewinded a few moments.

“Lizzie,” Gigi said directly into the camera, as she walked down the hall, “If you’re watching this...” she sighed, “Just call him. I don’t know how you feel about all this— I definitely have my theories— but whatever this is, I’m sure you’re just as uncertain as he is. Do both of you a favor here and _do_ something about it, ‘cuz I can’t get through to him.”

_Call him?!!_

Lizzie’s heart rate doubled as the video ended.

She held up her phone, scrolling to find his name in her contacts. She hesitated over his screen name: “snobby mr douchey.”

She smiled to herself. She had never changed it. Of course, she hadn’t needed to after everything, she’d assumed she was never going to need his number. Not that she’d ever needed it before. It had just been in case she needed to contact him, but she had made sure to stay far away from ever talking to him unless absolutely necessary.

So… then was she going to need his number now?

_I guess… even if we aren’t gonna da… even if we are just gonna be friends, then I probably shouldn’t keep this nickname._

She clicked the edit button and highlighted his name, pressing the back arrow before pausing.

Well. Now what.

Darcy? Will? William?

Probably just 'Darcy' would do, right? She—

“Oh, stop being a baby and just call him already.”

Lizzie blinked and looked up from her phone to find Lydia in the doorway.

“What?”

Lydia walked over and sat down next to her sister on the bed, “You watched that video from today, right? So, call him.”

“You- you know about Darcy’s videos?! _"_

Lydia chuckled, "Longer than you, actually.”

“Why on earth didn’t you tell me?!”

“He was an ass!” she huffed, “I thought he was putting on an act in his videos. From everything I’d seen of him in real life, he seemed like an awful person. So when it was clear he liked you… I don’t know. I didn’t want you to know because I didn’t want that to change your opinion about him. People tend to like people who like them. I didn’t want his crush to cloud your judgement. And I didn’t want you to see the version of him in his videos and think that was the real him. You deserved better than that. And I was happy when you told him so in October. But,” she continued with a sigh, “Then… I don’t know, we were fighting in the winter and everything, but I saw in my sub feed that he had posted a video with you in the thumbnail, and it caught me off guard. I hadn’t even known you’d been at Pemberley... I wanted to see what had happened to bring you two together— _smiling_ together in the thumbnail nonetheless— so I watched the video one night when I was home alone. It was that one where you two went to lunch.

“And I don’t know, maybe he cut out parts where he was being shitty or whatever, but just… seeing him around you? Being _genuine_ around you, not just picking fights?” She shook her head, “That was really him there. I could tell. Beyond all his bullshit. And _you_ brought that out of him. And God, to see him just… _light up_ when he’s with you. I mean, I didn’t think he was faking his crush before, but I just didn’t realize how… _much_ it was. I thought he was dumb, I thought he was some rich boy who didn’t deserve you but thought he could have you at the snap of his fingers. And then, well, he kinda did think that too, I guess, at first. But... it’s different now. I think it’s true; I think he does lov—“

“No,” Lizzie cut off, “He doesn’t.”

Lydia frowned, “What?”

“Did you not just watch his latest video? He couldn’t make it more clear that he only wants to be friends.”

Lydia gave her sister a withering look, “ _That’s_ what you got out of all that? _Seriously?_ ”

“What else am I supposed to get? That’s what he said! And I’m pretty sure at one point he was going to say ‘it doesn’t mean that I still like her.’”

“Of _course_ he still likes you, dude! Are you blind?! God, for someone in grad school studying communication, you are _really_ awful at interpreting communication.”

“Hey—!”

“He _likes_ you, Lizzie. One hundred percent. More like five hundred percent, honestly. He’s just pushing it away because he’s scared and doesn’t know what to think. Which sounds a lot like someone else I know…” she raised an eyebrow at her sister.

“But… I-“

“Well, you like him, too, right?”

Lizzie blinked. She didn’t know how to answer that. She hadn’t quite figured that out for herself yet.

Lydia rolled her eyes, “Come on. You can’t tell me you don’t. I know you loved that lunch, and if everything hadn’t…" her eyes flickered away, " _happened_ … you’d still be going on those lunches with him every chance you got. Maybe even some dinners. You like talking to him. You always have— even when it was arguing. You'd always cared about his opinions _way_ too much for someone who didn’t like him."

Lizzie furrowed her brow, "When did I ever care about Darcy's opinion? I hated his opinion."

"Exactly. You don’t usually get that angry with people who are rude to you. You’re good at brushing them off, you always have been. You tell them to eff off, laugh about it, then never think about it again. You did that with Collins around the exact same time. So the fact that you were always trying to prove Darcy wrong and argue with him meant something. It meant his opinions mattered to you. And that’s rare for you, Liz. I knew you had to have liked him at least a little." She watched her sister sinking all of this in before adding, "Plus, all you ever did for months was like. Glare at him when he was in the room and talk about him when he left. That's a little suspiciously obsessive, dontcha think?”

Liz huffed.

“So you admit that you like him, then?”

“... No... _Maybe_.”

Lydia grinned, satisfied with her work, “Good. Now just call him. It’ll all work out; I promise.”

Lydia took her sister’s hand in hers and gave it an encouraging squeeze before heading back out of the room.

“Oh, and by the way," she said, stopping in the doorway, "can you give me Gigi’s number? I wanna start a group chat with her and Fitz so I have somewhere to complain when you and Darcy are pining for each other."

“I'm _not_ pining!"

“She says, while pining," she teased, "I was thinking the groupchat could be called ‘lizzie and darcy want to b—‘

“Go!”

Lydia laughed before leaving the room and disappearing down the hall.

Lizzie turned back to her phone and sighed. Maybe Lydia was right. Maybe he did like her back.

But maybe he didn’t.

Well, she’d never find out unless she just called him.

She exhaled, tucking hair behind her ear.

_Alright. Okay. I can do this._

She tapped her thumb on the call button, and immediately her heart rate soared up 200%.

She bounced her leg, her hand absent-mindedly fidgeting with her necklace.

Then, finally: “Hello, William Darcy speaking.”

Lizzie’s eyes widened. Oh, God, she hadn’t considered that he would answer! She thought she could just maybe leave a voicemail or something and be done with it!!

_What the fuck do I say?!?!?_

She cleared her throat, “Yes. Hey. Darcy. Um, it’s... Lizzie! I... saw your recent video... If you have a sec, I’d like to... chat... about it...”

Lizzie screwed her eyes shut with pain. Oh this was totally not going well...

“One moment.”

There was some shuffling and then a door closed behind him, until he spoke again, “So, you, uh... want to... talk?”

“... Yes.”

“About... what?”

Lizzie bit her lip, “I don’t know... Us?”

Darcy breathed unevenly, “And you would like to do this on the phone?”

 _It would sure make your rejection easier to deal with,_ Lizzie thought before saying, “If you’re opposed to a phone call, I’m not entirely sure what else I can offer you...”

“I’m headed back to Netherfield this weekend to help Bing pack up for New York. We can discuss everything then?”

“Oh...” Lizzie’s heart was doing flips at the excitement of seeing him and the nervousness of inevitable rejection, “Um, alright. Sure. So, I’ll see you... then.”

“See you then,” he confirmed.

The phone line disconnected and Lizzie all but chucked her phone across the room from the rush of unsatisfied emotions.

How many days would she be left hanging to think and rethink that short conversation? And how would they meet? Would they go out to lunch or something? What would she wear? How would she react in public to whatever he said???

It was all too much.

The only definite she was sure of was that she wouldn’t get any sleep tonight.

* * *

Darcy clicked off his camera as he stepped off the escalator. He'd gotten footage of the Uber to the airport, the security line, a few planes landing from the airport window, him boarding the plane, up in the air, landing, and now leaving the airport. This upcoming vlog was almost all shot and set.

He slipped his camera back into its case and gripped the strap too tightly as he ran over potential conversations with Lizzie in his mind for the millionth time.

_She wants to talk about us._

_Does this mean there even is an 'us'?_

 

_Maybe not 'us' in the romantic sense, but perhaps 'us' in a friends sense?_

He smiled slightly. His heart tugged that he would never be with her romantically, but he knew he would take whatever scrap of a friendship with her that he could get. Honestly, he just wanted her in his life. And being around her in Pemberley only made him realize that more and more. He'd thought it'd be better if he cut off all contact (to be fair, after they yelled at each other for ten minutes, that was kind of the only solution possible, and the only one she would've wanted at the time). But he'd thought he could run from his feelings, just as he had when he'd left Netherfield to avoid her in the first place. He knew now that wasn't an option, and would never be an option. It hadn't worked whatsoever either time. The only thing that had was being able to just be her friend during her time at Pemberley. He realized he'd never been her friend before, and he pitied his previous self for that. Running around the city with Lizzie and Gigi might've been the best memories he'll ever have of San Francisco, and he hoped it wasn't just going to end forever now.

He slid his hands against the camera case again, wondering how he even planned to start this conversation with her. Should he call ahead? Should he just arrive unannounced at her doorstep? Should they talk at her house or go out to eat or something? What was the nature of the conversation even gonna be?

Oh God, what if she wanted to have this conversation so she could tell him that she never wanted to see him again.

He pushed the thoughts away. It wasn't the first time those thoughts appeared, and it surely wouldn't be the last, but he knew better now than to dwell on them.

Returning to the previous issue, he pulled out his phone and stared at her contact name, debating his options. Call? Text? Both? _Neither?_

He exhaled and moved his thumb to hover over the call button- deciding to just throw caution to the wind and get it over with- but instead found his screen change.

He frowned, Bing's contact picture appearing across the buzzing phone.

Darcy moved his thumb over to accept the call:

"William Darcy speaking," he answered, moving over to wait for his luggage.

"You know, you don't have to say that when you've already seen that it's me calling you."

"Force of habit."

Bing chuckled goodnaturedly, "Well, anyway. I know you just landed and you probably have to go straight to that 'important meeting' you said you needed to have or whatever, but I wanted to invite you over for a party if you can come. Jane and I decided to have some people over, just as a small going away celebration. She's a little sad to be leaving her hometown, so we decided to invite some of her close friends over to the pool and swim for a bit. Maybe even order-in some of those 'cardboard-y' pizzas from that pizzeria in town you hate. There's a spot for you if you're interested?" Bing asked, then continued again quickly, "I know parties aren't really your scene, but I promise this will be different. It's super lowkey- nothing like a Caroline party. I think you'll enjoy it."

Will gave a half smile at his friend, "I appreciate your accommodations, but I think-"

"Hey Bing!" A distant voice interrupted. Darcy froze and held the phone closer to his ear, listening to that all too familiar voice.

"Lydia and I were thinking of running to the store to get a cake, do you need anything else?" _Lizzie_.

"Pick up another bag of popcorn," Bing answered, pulling the phone away from his cheek, "Also grab another bag of ice just to be on the safe side!"

"Sounds good! I would say we'd be back soon, but knowing Lydia, I can't guarantee that. So call me if you have any other things you need," Lizzie  finished. Darcy could hear a door shut.

Bing pulled the phone back up, "Sorry about the interruption. Are you sure you can't come though? I was planning to get your favorite-"

"On second thought, I'll be there Bing," Darcy answered, quickly regathering his luggage.

"Seriously?! That's great! Well, um, we're setting up right now, but the party doesn't start until 7:00ish, so if you want, you could go get some food or some work done before you-"

"Nope, it's no problem, I can be there in twenty minutes." Darcy was already speed-walking to the door.

"Oh! Alright then! See ya in a few, buddy."

Bing pulled away from the phone as Jane began speaking in the distance, and the line disconnected.

Oh, shit. This was happening.

Whatever this talk was gonna be was happening  **now**.

* * *

Darcy, not knowing what else to do, filmed some establishing shots of the drive down, and then the walk up to Bing's front door. His nerves were getting the better of him and he was so grateful to have the weight of his camera between his hands or else it would be clear how he was shaking a little.

He knocked on the door, realizing he no longer had bothered to keep a key to Netherfield. Damn, had he really abandoned this place so quickly and carelessly?

_To be fair, I had been trying to abandon a certain **person** very quickly and carelessly,_ he thought to himself. He could almost laugh. It was comical now to think that that could've ever worked.

The door began to open and Darcy held his breath, unsure who it would be.

"Lydia, did you remember to get the-" Jane paused, registering the sight Darcy before her, "Oh. Darcy! I'm sorry I thought you were..." she shook her head, "What are you doing here?"

"I invited him," Bing answered, appearing next to her. "Great to see ya, Darce," Bing beamed.

Darcy nodded back.

"Oh, here, I can take that," Bing motioned toward Darcy's luggage and grabbed the handle. Darcy let him and followed him in the door.

Darcy was flooded with memories as he stepped into the front room. Everything had been different when he was living here. He was still in denial about his feelings, and he was completely unaware of everything happening on Lizzie's side. That felt like eons ago...

After putting his luggage back up in his old room, Darcy headed outside to the pool and looked around at the decorations. Everything was roughly put together- either handmade with Sharpies or a cheap dollar store decoration- and it made Darcy smile inwardly. This party was very much a Bennet party, and he loved it.

It was so funny to him how he'd looked down at this stuff all those months ago, thinking it was low class and stupid. Now he found it charming. The Bennets didn't need fancy decorations or elaborately set up parties to be happy. And he rather liked that.

He held up his camera, spinning it around to capture all of the decorations hung around the yard.

"Alright, absolutely not," Bing chuckled behind Darcy.

The latter turned, confused, "What?"

Bing took the camera from his hands, "I refuse to let you sit behind a camera for yet another party. I'm not going to force you to mingle or dance with anybody, but can you please just enjoy a party for once instead of looking at it through a lens?"

"Bing, this is my job."

"Exactly! And jobs don't belong at parties. There's an official no-shop talk rule here."

"... This is a party entirely centered around Jane's new job."

Bing rolled his eyes playfully, "Fine. We can compromise." He set the camera down on a nearby table, "How about you leave it here during the whole party. That way, you aren't hiding behind it the whole time, but you still get a lovely timelapse for your channel. Deal?"

Darcy frowned, "It will get wet there."

"Then find a better spot! Just not one that's in your hands."

Bing patted him twice on the shoulder before walking back inside to find Jane.

Darcy sighed, but relented. He was right. He could admit that he was a little addicted to his camera, and though he wouldn't enjoy it, Bing was probably right that he should spend some time away from it.

Darcy surveyed the yard for a good angle that also wouldn't get wet, and chose one beneath the balcony on one of the patio tables. It was far enough away from the pool and underneath the balcony so it wasn't likely to get wet. It also included a spectacular view of the sunset behind the trees. He was excited to see how the shot would turn out.

He hit record before beginning to move some of the chairs slightly one way or another to get a clearer view of the pool. He slotted his arm through the backs a few chairs, deciding he would just move them to the other side of the patio and turning around to-

He froze.

It took every muscle in his body to not just completely drop the chairs in his hands at the sight in front of him. _Lizzie_. God, sometimes he forgot how beautiful she was. He knew in his head that she was, but it still caught him off guard every time he saw her. And the glow around her from the pink sunset behind her was only making it harder. He cleared his throat and set the chairs down gently, taking a few steps toward her.

"Lizzie," he breathed, attempting to calm himself.

"Darcy."

"You... called me."

"I... yes, I did."

"What did you want to say?”

Lizzie felt like her lungs were frozen shut, like she couldn’t breathe in or out, just staring at him. She was scared. Maybe she shouldn’t have called him. Maybe she’d prefer to live without knowing, because then she wouldn’t have to face rejection.

“I wanted to tell you…” _that I think I might like you_ “- thank you.” She closed her eyes at what had fallen out of her mouth. That’s not what she wanted to say. But she still wasn’t sure she could say what she wanted to say.

“‘Thank you?’” he repeated back with confusion.

“Y- yes, um… Lydia told me. About… the Wickham stuff.” Darcy looked away and scratched the back of his neck, but Lizzie pressed on, “About everything you did with the website... we cannot thank you enough.”

Darcy sighed, “Lizzie… your family owes me no thanks. As much as I’ve come to respect them, I did not do it for them.” His eyes found hers, and he allowed himself to tell the truth, or at least, a single part of what belonged to a much larger mosaic of his feelings for her: “I did it for you.”

Lizzie did not know how to receive this information. At all. It took her several long moments of silence before she even registered that it was her turn to say something.

“Uhm…” she started, preparing to say something in return, but all that came out was a surprised “ _For me?”_

Darcy could laugh. Was it not blindingly obvious by now? When he’d first started liking her, he’d done all he could to hide his feelings. But he wasn’t doing that anymore. He felt like his feelings were written across his face now. Could she still not see it?

“Lizzie, what did you want from this conversation?” he asked candidly. She’d called him with some sort of intention, he was sure. So _what was it?_

“‘Want’, right, um…” she hesitated, “W- well, we left things at a weird spot at Pemberley. And… well, I guess I was kind of…” she trailed off before finally just meeting his gaze, “What are we? What do you want us to be?”

“I want to be whatever you want us to be.”

“That’s not what I mean,” she huffed, “What do _you_ want?”

Darcy pressed his lips together, looking down, “I believe I told you that back in October.”

“Right, but then I ruined that, so what is it that you want _now?_ ”

Darcy met her eyes again, scanning them silently. Did she really think he’d changed his mind? That’d he’d just gone and forgotten the way her smiles, her laughs, her mind made him physically ache with affection?

He wouldn’t even be capable of changing his mind about her, even if he’d wanted to. (He didn’t want to.)

“Lizzie…” _how does she not see this?_ “Nothing ever changed.”

Her anxious eyes slid up to meet his, unsure of what he meant.

He continued, “I… I don’t want to make you uncomfortable again with my feelings, but, if I’m being honest... “ he sighed, staring into those big blue eyes that had first captured his attention almost a year ago, “I still feel the exact same way I felt back in the fall. More so, even than I did then. Nothing ever changed.”

Her mouth was open, wide with shock. If Darcy’s heart wasn’t painfully on his sleeve at the moment, he would’ve thought it adorable. (Who was he kidding, he would still think she was adorable if she was curb-stomping him to death).

“Oh” was all she said in response. Her brain was whirring like machinery, trying to make sense of the words he was saying. It was as if she was trying to understand someone’s speech in a foreign language; like she didn’t have the tools to even begin to know what he meant.

Words could be like that. Words could be confusing, ill-fitting.

_Words_. They’d spent their entire relationship exchanging words. What had it ever meant? It never got them anywhere besides anger and fighting and heartbreak.

She didn’t have words anymore. All she had was the feeling of wanting to be near him, to be with him. Her eyes fell to his lips, and she knew she wanted that, too.

“‘Oh?’” he repeated back at her, beginning to spiral into a realization that she was about to reject him again, but this time in a nicer way, a _pitying_ way _,_ “I don’t want you to f--”

His words were cut off by Lizzie's mouth on his.

The kiss was an explosion, each of their emotions going in a thousand different directions at once. Their brains were short-circuiting, but they didn't seem to mind. It felt right. It felt like maybe, for once in their entire acquaintance, everything was going to be alright.

He sighed against her lips as if he'd been waiting for this since he was born. Or perhaps, not since his birth, but the world's birth. That perhaps their two souls had finally reconnected just now, as they had millions of times in past lives.

Lizzie recognized this, too. Felt that way she knew words couldn't describe.

And maybe all those confusing puzzle pieces could finally make sense. Lizzie felt them all piecing together before her- every time she'd really looked at him, or thought about him, or missed him- and she knew its weight now. Knew she couldn't run from what it meant anymore.

She pulled away from the kiss, barely moving away as she told him, “I think I might feel that same way, too.”

Darcy began to move his hand away from her cheek, but Lizzie brought her own up on top of his to keep it there.

He smiled, then using his other hand to tuck a strand of her red hair behind her ear. He melted at the sight before him. Lizzie's big blue eyes looking up at him in the way that only she could, their sharpness challenging his and their glow illuminating everything around her. He tucked another strand of hair behind her ear, enjoying the way the soft strands felt against his fingertips, the way the red seemed to be ablaze in the golden light of the fading sunset.

The fading...

_sunset..._

Darcy turned back toward the camera he'd set up with wide eyes.

Lizzie followed his gaze, laughing as she caught view of the lens, "God, do you film everything in your life?"

"No," he shook his head, a smile spreading across his face, "You just have impeccable-" he turned back to find her smiling up at him, his heart catching in his chest at how enchanting that happy, teasing smile looked like directed at him "... timing."

He stared at her, drinking it all in and wondering how he could possibly be so lucky as to be standing there with her.

She ran a hand against his jawline, and his smile widened, before leaning down to kiss her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only the epilogue left babes!
> 
> Love you guys!  
> Also keep an eye out for a new series that I'm currently working on B)


	5. A Stay at Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a lil bit of epilogue 100% dumb fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my goodness I didn't realize i'd never posted this chapter!  
> im so sorry!!

"How do I make this the background to every device I'll ever touch for the rest of my life?" Will asked, staring at the computer before him displaying their first kiss framed perfectly before a golden setting sun. He was currently trying to figure out what should be the video's thumbnail before posting it, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to use the kiss or if he wanted that part to be a surprise.

"You're adorable," she kissed his cheek as she sat back down next to him with a fresh mug of tea, "And I'm flattered."

"Well, obviously I meant I want it as my background because my hair looks rather good in that shot."

"Oh, shut up," Lizzie giggled, pushing his shoulder, "I should've never taught you sarcasm."

"Less 'taught' and more 'forced into.'"

"Welcome to the Bennet family," she joked.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You never did get a full time lapse of the party. What a shame."

"And whose fault was that?"

Lizzie rolled her eyes playfully, "I was hoping that if I shoved a camera in your face, I could convince you to agree to go swimming! Like some kind of internet peer pressure."

"Well, I'm glad you're so keen on attempting to use my audience against me,"  he chuckled.

"So what, I tried to get you to have a little fun for once in your life, sue me!" she teased, "Besides, it's not like you actually ended up getting wet. You have the balance of a flamingo."

"When you have best friends like Fitz and Bing, you build up a resistance to being pushed into pools."

"We wouldn't have to force you if you just did it voluntarily!"

"I ate the local pizza you wanted me to try _voluntarily_ , and where did that get me?"

"Oh, stop the act, I know you secretly liked that pizza."

"It was mediocre, at best."

" _Most_ things in life are mediocre at best."

"That's... fair."

"But you know what isn't mediocre? Swimming!"

"I promise you that will never happen. I will never go swimming."

"I will absolutely take you up on that challenge, William Darcy, and _I will win._ "

He chuckled with a shake of his head before removing one arm from around her to continue finishing up the video upload.

She tucked her head against his chest, "This is so bizarre," she commented, watching as he entered in video information to the little Youtube boxes.

"What is?" he asked only half focused, typing out the description.

"This. Watching you edit your videos. Being on the other end of this."

He pulled away to look at her for a moment, directing his attention solely to her, "Oh?"

"Yeah, I mean I spent months getting my only information from whatever you uploaded. It's weird to see the behind the scenes. To _be_ the behind the scenes."

He chuckled, "Well, congratulations on your backstage pass into the life of William Darcy. I'm afraid it's not too interesting. Although you can press the upload button for me if you want to truly be a part of the show business magic..." he added with an ironic flair.

Lizzie laughed, "My, Mr. Darcy, you really know how to impress a girl! I always said growing up that upload buttons were the key to my heart," she said in her fake southern accent.

Will only shook his head, "So, I take that as a no?"

"Just press the button," Lizzie laughed.

Will did as told, and the two watched the cursor spin for a moment before taking them to the published video, ready for hundreds of thousands of viewers to click upon it.

_Buzz_.

Lizzie and Darcy both looked down at Lizzie's phone lighting up.

Lizzie quickly shot out and snatched the phone, stuffing it into her pocket, but the damage had been done- Darcy had seen it.

" _You have my channel on push notifications?"_

Lizzie blushed bright red and hid her face into his chest.

"You really were a big fan of my videos then?" He asked, a proud little smile dancing on his face.

"Maybe just a teeny bit?" She winced.

"Then how on earth could you still possibly think I didn't like you? It was made very clear."

"No it was not!" she argued, moving away from him to face him fully, "You cut yourself off like every sentence. It was so ambiguous!"

"I verbally admitted to pining after you."

"WHEN?!"

"In the video before you came to Pemberley!"

Lizzie thought for a moment, wondering how she'd missed that.

She shut her eyes as her shoulders sagged with realization, "I clicked out of that video halfway through."

Darcy chuckled with mock offense, "Alright, I suppose you really aren't quite a big fan."

"You'd sounded like you hated that I was coming. I thought I would be intruding on you and I was embarrassed," she put her face in her hands, "Why was the only video I didn't watch literally the most important?"

He squeezed her tighter against him, "Don't be too hard on yourself. It all worked out in the end."

Lizzie smiled, nuzzling her head against him and squeezing his torso.

" _Except for the fact that I still have yet to get you in a pool,_ " she added with a grin.

"Lizzie!"

* * *

Episode 91:

“Lizzieee,” Will’s voice cooed from behind the camera, as he tucked the lens under the covers to show Lizzie, still sleeping, “Wake up, love.”

Lizzie opened one bleary eye, “Whaaat?” She mumbled.

“It’s hiking day, remember? With Gigi?”

“I’m sure Gigi wouldn’t mind to give me a few more minutes of sleep...” Lizzie curled back into her blanket.

Will sighed and leaned forward, giving her a long, long kiss.

“That’s totally unfair, you’re cheating,” Lizzie teased, much more awake now.

“It got you up, did it not?”

Lizzie propped herself up on her elbow and gave him a look, before pushing the camera away and kissing him again.

The intro played, and then shot to footage of them hiking.

It was over music, so what they were saying couldn’t be heard as they climbed up. But they were laughing and talking and teasing the whole way up, taking as many cinematic shots of the scenery as they could.

That’s something that amazed Lizzie. His vlogs were beautifully composed and so purposeful with every angle and inch.

_If I had a vlog, my goodness it would look nothing like this..._

She was certain she’d be terrible at framing and editing and hell, maybe even her content would be terrible, too.

But she liked the idea of it. She’d been thinking about it for a while now, starting her own vlog.

After all, she was accustomed to the vlogging way of life already by being around Will. She figured it wouldn’t be too hard to start herself. And she thought that she might quite like it.

It was a form of storytelling, right? She’d always enjoyed storytelling. And Will was always complimenting her on how good of a storyteller she was.

She thought she’d find it pretty natural, for some reason. 

Maybe once Will and her had gone home that night and were tucked up in bed together, tangled in each others arms... maybe she’d mention it and see what he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank all of you so so much for sticking with the story and giving such kind feedback over and over! honestly, i probably wouldn't have had the inspiration to finish this story without yall.  
> i hope you guys enjoyed it!
> 
> sooooo so much love; see yall soon!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! please comment and give kudos!! lots of love <3


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